ABSTRACT
The construction industry is one of the largest contributors to the world’s carbon footprint. One way to dramatically reduce this is to go back to use natural building materials and implementing modern applications of ancient and historic building techniques. A system showing promise in modern applications is rammed earth. In this paper brief historical background examples will be presented followed by a modern analysis of the embodied energy expended in the construction rammed earth methods will be explored. Followed by pointing out the positive results of using massive exterior walls as strategy to reduce the impact of outside temperatures on interior space. Finally modern examples rammed earth buildings and techniques will be presented.
